THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

ROUT OF THE GREEKS 219
other day, and give the soldiery time to recover their
spirits.
Between Munychia and Athens the ground was
covered with olive yards and gardens,
which would
have afforded excellent cover for the advance of irregular
troops.
But for some unexplained, and perhaps
inexplicable, reason, Church had transferred his base
from the Piraeus to the eastern end of the Bay of
Phalerum, and here on the morning of the 6th of May
the main body of the attacking force was landed. Between
it and the enemy lay a stretch of open downs,
affording no cover for infantry, but excellent manoeuvring
ground for the Ottoman cavalry. Church was
still on his yacht, where e
'
in most unmilitary fashion *
he had made his headquarters.
The Greeks, sullen and
depressed, advanced across the open in a straggling
line, without order and with no eagerness. Suddenly,
from a ravine where they had been concealed by the
Ottoman commander, a large body of Turkish cavalry
burst upon them;
and the Greeks, with hardly a pretence
of resistance, broke and fled.
Cochrane and Church had just landed from their
yachts when the crowd of fugitives, close pressed
by the Ottomans, rushed helter-skelter to the shore.
The English officers had barely time to wade into
i Finlay,
ii. 143.